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Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy Quotes

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Famous Leo Tolstoy Quotes

“What is now happening to the people of the East as of the West is like what happens to every individual when he passes from childhood to adolescence and from youth to manhood. He loses what had hitherto guided his life and lives without direction, not having found a new standard suitable to his age, and so he invents all sorts of occupations, cares, distractions, and stupefactions to divert his attention from the misery and senselessness of his life. Such a condition may last a long time.”

PeopleMayLongHappensCareAgeLastsFoundIndividualLosesAttentionChildhoodConditionsYouthLong TimeStandardsHappeningsMiseryWestEastOccupationDistractionAdolescenceManhoodSuitableSenselessness
Book:I Cannot be Silent: Writings on Politics, Art and Religion by Leo Tolstoy
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“In the spiritual realm nothing is indifferent: what is not useful is harmful.”

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Book:The Spiritual Works of Leo Tolstoy: A Confession, The Kingdom of God is Within You, What I Believe, Christianity and Patriotism, Reason and Religion, The Gospel in Brief and more: Lessons on What it Means to be a True Christian From the Greatest Russian Novelists and Author of War and Peace & Anna Karenina (Including Letter to a Kind YouthandCorrespondences with Gandhi)
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“There can be only one permanent revolution - a moral one; the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.”

ThinkingKnowsMenWorldFeelsHumanityMoralKnow HowRevolutionEvery ManPermanentOur WorldNobody KnowsRegeneration
Book:Pamphlets. Translated from the Russian
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“The idea, shared by many, that life is a vale of tears, is just as false as the idea shared by the great majority, the idea to which youth and health and riches incline you, that life is a place of entertainment. Life is a place of service, and in that service one has to suffer a great deal that is hard to bear, but more often to experience a great deal of joy. But that joy can be real only if people look upon their life as a service, and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.”

PeopleIfsLooksIdeasRealHardLife IsJoySufferingDealsObjectsYouthTearsBearsMajorityEntertainmentRichesLook UpBeing RealDefiniteInclinePersonal Happiness
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“The role of the disappointed lover of a maiden or of any single woman might be ridiculous; but the role of a man who was pursuing a married woman, and who made it the purpose of his life at all cost to draw her into adultery, was one which had in it something beautiful and dignified and could never be ridiculous.”

MenMadeMightBeautifulPurposeRolesLoversCostMarriedDrawsRidiculousMade ItDisappointedAdulteryMaidensSomething BeautifulSingle WomenMarried Women
Book:ANNA KARENINA – Two Unabridged Translations in One Premium Edition (World Classics Series): The Greatest Romantic Tragedy of All Times from the Renowned Author of War and Peace & The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Including Biographies of the Author)
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“Government is violence, Christianity is meekness, non-resistance, love. And, therefore, government cannot be Christian, and a man who wishes to be a Christian must not serve government.”

MenGovernmentChristianWishChristianityViolenceResistanceMeekness
Book:The Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy: Novels, Short Stories, Plays, Memoirs, Letters & Essays on Art, Religion and Politics: Anna Karenina, War and Peace, Resurrection, The Death of Ivan Ilych, A Confession, The Cossacks, Correspondences with Gandhi, The Kreutzer Sonata, Fables and Stories for Childrenand Many More
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“If you do not know your place in the world and the meaning of your life, you should know there is something to blame; and it is not the social system, or your intellect, but the way in which you have directed your intellect.”

IfsKnowsWorldWayShouldSocialBlameIntellectMeaning Of LifePlaces In The WorldSocial Systems
Book:A Calendar of Wisdom: Daily Thoughts to Nourish the Soul, Written and Se
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“It seems that it is impossible to live without discovering the purpose of your life. And the first thing which a person should do is to understand the meaning of life. But the majority of people who consider themselves to be educated are proud that they have reached such great height that they cease to care about the meaning of existence.”

PeopleShouldFirstsPersonsSeemsCarePurposeExistenceImpossibleProudMajorityCeaseEducatedHeightMeaning Of LifeDiscoveringGreat Heights
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“Tell people that war is an evil, and they will laugh; for who does not know it? Tell them that patriotism is an evil, and most of them will agree, but with a reservation. "Yes," they will say, "wrong patriotism is an evil; but there is another kind, the kind we hold." But just what this good patriotism is, no one explains.”

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Book:Essays, Letters, Miscellanies. [Edited by Nathan Haskell Dole]
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“The workmen's revolution, with the terrors of destruction and murder, not only threatens us, but we have already been living upon its verge during the last thirty years, and it is only by various cunning devices that we have been postponing the crisis. The hatred and contempt of the oppressed people are increasing, and the physical and moral strength of the richer classes are decreasing: the deceit which supports all this is wearing out, and the rich classes have nothing wherewith to comfort themselves.”

PeopleYearsHas BeensLastsMoralClassSupportRichRevolutionComfortDestructionHatredMurderCrisisTerrorVariousThirtyDeceitDevicesContemptOppressedCunningThirty YearsVergeWorkmenPostponingMoral Strength
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“The Anarchists are right in everything; in the negation of the existing order, and in the assertion that, without authority, there could not be worse violence than that of authority under existing conditions. They are mistaken only in thinking that Anarchy can be instituted by a revolution. "To establish Anarchy." "Anarchy will be instituted." But it will be instituted only by there being more and more people who do not require protection from governmental power, and by there being more and more people who will be ashamed of applying this power.”

PeopleThinkingOrderViolenceConditionsRevolutionAuthorityProtectionAshamedAnarchyMistakenAnarchistAssertionNegationMental Power
Book:Social Evils and Their Remedy
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“Only the truth and its expression can establish that new public opinion which will reform the ancient obsolete and pernicious order of life; and yet we not only do not express the truth we know, but often even distinctly give expression to what we ourselves regard as false. If only free men would not rely on that which has no power, and is always fettered upon external aids; but would trust in that which is always powerful and free the truth and its expression!”

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Book:Essays, letters, misc. (General articles ; Famine articles ; The Dukhobors)
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“When an individual passes from one period of life to another a time comes when he cannot go on in senseless activity and excitement as before, but has to understand that although he has out-grown what before used to direct him, this does not mean that he must live without any reasonable guidance, but rather that he must formulate for himself an understanding of life corresponding to his age, and having elucidated it must be guided by it. And in the same way a similar time must come in the growth and development of humanity.”

WayMeanDoeAgeUsedHumanityIndividualUnderstandingGrowthGoes OnDevelopmentPeriodsActivityDirectGuidanceExcitementReasonableCorresponding
Book:The Spiritual Works of Leo Tolstoy: A Confession, The Kingdom of God is Within You, What I Believe, Christianity and Patriotism, Reason and Religion, The Gospel in Brief and more: Lessons on What it Means to be a True Christian From the Greatest Russian Novelists and Author of War and Peace & Anna Karenina (Including Letter to a Kind YouthandCorrespondences with Gandhi)
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“The error arises from the learned jurists deceiving themselves and others, by asserting that government is not what it really is, one set of men banded together to oppress another set of men , but, as shown by science, is the representation of the citizens in their collective capacity.”

MenGovernmentTogetherCitizensCapacityErrorsAriseCollectivesDeceivingRepresentationJurists
Book:The Kingdom of God Is Within You: Easyread Large Bold Edition
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“People continued regardless of all that leads man forward to try to unite the incompatibles:;: the virtue of love, and what is opposed to love, namely, the restraining of evil by violence. And such a teaching, despite its inner contradiction, was so firmly established that the very people who recognize love as a virtue accept as lawful at the same time an order of life based on violence and allowing men not merely to torture but even to kill one another.”

PeopleMenTryingOrderEvilAcceptingVirtueViolenceTeachingDespiteTortureContradictionAllowingRestraining
Author:Leo Tolstoy
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“Man's mind cannot grasp the causes of events in their completeness, but the desire to find the causes is implanted in man's soul.”

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Book:WAR AND PEACE Complete Edition – All 15 Books in One Volume (World Classics Series): The Magnum Opus of the Greatest Russian Novelists and Author of Anna Karenina & The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Including the Biography & Memoirs of the Author)
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“The soul is immortal- well then, if I shall always live, I must have lived before, lived for a whole eternity.”

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Book:WAR AND PEACE Complete Edition – All 15 Books in One Volume (World Classics Series): The Magnum Opus of the Greatest Russian Novelists and Author of Anna Karenina & The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Including the Biography & Memoirs of the Author)
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“In vain do science and philosophy pose as the arbiters of the human mind, of which they are in fact only the servants. Religion has provided a conception of life, and science travels in the beaten path. Religion reveals the meaning of life, and science only applies this meaning to the course of circumstances.”

MindHumansPhilosophyFactsReligionCoursesPathCircumstancesVainServantMeaning Of LifeHuman MindConceptionBeatenArbiterScience And PhilosophyBeaten Path
Book:My Religion
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“School is established, not in order that it should be convenient for the children to study, but that teachers should be able to teach in comfort. The children's conversations, motion, merriment are not convenient for the teacher, and so in the schools, which are built on the plan of prisons, are prohibited.”

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Book:Tolstoy on Education
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